T U R N I N G T R A G E D Y I N T O T R I U M P H
A DOUBLE WHAMMY hit Angeles City in June 1991. One, Clark Air Base, the be-all and end-all of the city’s economic wellbeing was abruptly abandoned by the Americans, ending over 90 years of occupation. Two, virtually unknown Mount Pinatubo erupted, burying the city in ash. Mudflows rampaged, destroying all the principal bridges, gobbling up houses, buildings, the city general hospital. Massive devastation. Wholesale dislocation. Those were indeed “the times that try men’s souls,” and found many wanting: Businesses finding the fastest exit from the city, the well-todo mass migrating, the ne’er-do-well languishing in cramped tent cities. A hopeless case was made of the long derided City of Lost Angels. Of brave souls, though, of true believers in the strength of the Angeleño character, the city did not want of. From them arose the clarion call— summoning the innate grit and determination, the resiliency and ingenuity, the never-say-die spirit of their race— to rise above any catastrophe, to surpass any challenge, to turn even the worst of tragedies into triumph. This work is but a small footnote of their epic Pinatubo story.
AGYU TAMU T U R N I N G T R A G E D Y I N T O T R I U M P H
The Pinatubo Story of Angeles City B O N G
E D I T E D B Y Z . L A C S O N
PUBLISHED for Agyu Tamu Movement by the Public Relations and Media Exponents, Inc., #4 Washington St., Green Meadows Subdivision, Mabiga, Mabalacat, Pampanga. Telephone numbers (045) 626-0836. E-mail address: ashleymanabat@yahoo.com
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COPYRIGHT 2011 by Caesar Z. Lacson. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any other means without permission in writing from the publisher. ISBN: 978-971-93161-4-5 PRINTED June 2011 by Mexico Printing Company, Inc., Mexico, Pampanga.
TO THE ANGELEﾃ前:
IN REMEMBERING, WE BELIEVE.
FOREWORD OUR CITY was still half-buried in ash when the alarms came. Lahar would be coming, volcanologists warned, and we had to brace up and prepare. We had very little idea about lahar. Some said it would come like thousands of horses galloping, descending from the slopes of Mount Pinatubo down to the hills, then to the valleys, swelling the rivers. Flattening our city. I remember I made a call, as acting Mayor then, for us to fortify the banks of the Abacan River, the possible path of the lahar. I thought that if the lahar breached the banks of the river, it would spill over to the nearby communities and ruin our city all the more. I asked for volunteers. As the frightened Americans were leaving Clark Airbase, the Angele単os came out from their ash-buried houses, from the ruins. They came in droves, in thousands. Men, women, children. The young and the old. The rich and the poor. They all came. IF ASKED, I would say that the most spectacular sight and memory of the Mount Pinatubo eruption that began June 12, 1991 was not the giant mushroom of ash that rose kilometers into the atmosphere, not the instant transformation of Angeles City and nearby areas into a Hollywoodlike gloomy movie set of a ruined planet of gray. Certainly not the devastation! The most spectacular sight and memory was the 20,000 Angele単os who were in several parallel lines at both banks of the Abacan, some with picks and shovels, and the rest passing on sandbags which were piled at the river walls to reinforce them from the flow of lahar, which nobody had a clear idea of. In a short while, we finished the job and retired entertaining comforting thoughts we had just protected our city. Then the lahar came. Within minutes, all that we worked for was gone. THIS BOOK, to commemorate the eruption of Mount Pinatubo 20 years ago, may show yet again how man can be so small and insignificant in the face of the wrath of nature. But in some instances, like in the case of the Angele単os, the human spirit prevails. From the ashes and ruins of devastation, from tragedy, the spirit of the Angele単os rose, blossomed and triumphed. A phoenix, really. We rebuilt our city, and are now in the process of building further. There are many challenges still. But I know, no, I am certain that we shall overcome. We shall prevail and triumph again. And yet again. EDGARDO D. PAMINTUAN Mayor, Angeles City
I
T WAS THE BEST OF TIMES.
“Three hundred years in a convent and fifty years in Hollywood.” Nowhere in the country is that anonymous wit’s encapsulation of Philippine history more manifest than in Angeles City. The celestial beings that old Barrio Kuliat took for its name, a signal honor to the religiosity of its people. Religiosity resonant in its main streets of Sto. Rosario and Sto. Entierro at which juncture stands the citadel of faith, Holy Rosary Parish Church.
Religiosity celebrated not just in one but two fiestas
for the USAF’s bombing forays to stem the Red Tide—
in October: On the second Sunday, La Naval in devotion
pursuant to the Cold War’s “Domino Theory”— about
to the Virgin whose intercession sparked the victory of
to sweep through most of Southeast Asia. And the city
the Spanish fleet against Dutch and British privateers
all too willing to open its arms— and legs— to war-
in 1646; and on the last Friday, Piyestang Apu for Apung
weary soldiers for their R&R.
Mamacalulu or the Lord of Mercy.
So ruled the Almighty Dollar. So reigned the
At the opposite end of the moral divide stood—
American GI. In the city denigrated by the defenders of
from 1903— Clark Air Base, the largest American
morality as having been founded on the very loins of
military installation outside continental USA.
an occupying army.
And right outside its very gates evolved Fields
That cudgel taken up by militants and nationalists
Avenue, a virtual city of camp followers: All-night
finding conscientization in the damnation of the three
and all-day clubs featuring shows of the most exotic
isms shackling Filipino society, namely, feudalism,
and erotic kinds, short-time motels and alley inns,
imperialism, and bureaucrat-capitalism.
beer gardens and massage parlors,
The perfunctory cries of “Yankees,
women, women, women, of all ages,
go home” rising to the belligerent
shapes and degrees of pulchritude,
screams
and— to be gender-equal— gays.
militar” in scores of protest marches
of
“Lansagin
ang
base
There too abounded the PX
and rallies routinely dispersed by
(post-exchange) trade— of stateside
head-bashing, truncheon-wielding
goods smuggled out, purchased or
elements of the Philippine Air
pilfered from the Clark commissary.
Force’s Clark Air Base Command. Still,
US Booster and Chuck Taylor. Baby
and
all—
neither
Ruth and Hershey bars. Hanes and
nationalism nor sovereignty ever
Fruit of the Loom. Jim Beam and
been found to fill an empty stomach,
Jack Daniels. Benson & Hedges and Hav-a-Tampa.
as some wisecrack of a politico once quipped— the city
Apples and grapes. Playboy and Penthouse. Find them
and its citizens welcomed the American presence as
only at Dau and Nepo Mart.
all-boon and never-bane to their very existence: Their
At the Checkpoint, immediately before the Clark main gate, flourished literal wheeling-and-dealing— of
economic empowerment solidly established, their social well-being firmly secured.
used American gas guzzlers, from the sporty Mustang
Having a cornucopia in Clark Air Base, ensconced
to the immense Cadillac, most prized by the locals
in its pre-eminent status among communities, urban
as status symbols— whence arose an argot: “English
and rural in all of Northern and Central Luzon, Angeles
Checkpoint,” best exampled when bargaining: “How
City found little reason to fear, much less prepare, for
low can you make it down, Joe?”
the unknown.
The Vietnam War spurred the city’s own gold rush, with Clark serving as logistics hub and forward base
In the Epicurean ideal, the city rocked and its citizens rolled.
HOLY ROSARY CHURCH | BY RIC GONZALES
Bastion of faith shines through the dark of night.
BASETOWN, USA | BY BERT PAMINTUAN
The tri-color notwithstanding, the stars and stripes rules supreme. At the Clark tarmac is Gen. Eisenhower.
FIL-AM RELATIONS
Early ‘60s socials transcend color boundaries.
GI JAZZ
Music soothes US serviceman bleeding for the local Red Cross organization.
THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT
Star performers at the Coconut Grove and O’ Club are these local version of the 1970’s Circus Band.
DANCE SWEET
Distance between partners in slow drag changes with the times.
FIESTA AMERICAN-STYLE
Happening On The Green was a much awaited event at Clark Air Base.
CHEERS
To the good life, the Americans secured state-of-the-art war machines.
by
AT FIELDS AVENUE|BY BONG PUNSALAN
Modest scenes belie Sin City tag of Angeles exposed in news clipping.
BURNING ISSUE
Militant students torch
‘imperialist designs.’ “No confirmation, no denial” stance un-clears nuclear presence at Clark Air Base.
THOU SHALT NOT PASS
Phalanx of anti-riot police
blocks demonstrators led by
activist Alex Cauguiran
from getting near Clark Air Base’s
main gate.
DISMANTLE U.S. BASES
Far
from Clark, Cauguiran gets nationalistic message to
thousands at Nepo Quadrangle.
SAVING THE PRESS
First ever rally that penetrated the security cordon and occupied Clark Air Base’s main gate was the media’s protest against the Clark Air Base Command of the Philippine Air Force.
ď ?ď ?
WE WILL SURVIVE
News clipping says no
bases for insecurity of Angeles without the base. Rallyist takes intelligence stealthily deeper.
JUNE 10, 1991. Angeles City awakened to its worst
– “overacting,” he called the American abandonment
nightmare: the American dream was over.
of the base, and comforting – that the greater number
Dashed was the hope – against hope – that GI Joe
of Angelenos need not panic, being outside Pinatubo’s
would stay, come what may. A belief borne by the new
immediate 10-kilometer radius that was initially tagged
concrete wall around the base perimeter that had just
as danger zone.
been completed, the frenzied base housing construction
Thunderous explosions cut Abad Santos in mid-
seen as sure sign of increased troop deployment, and the
speech, a giant plume of ash shot up 20 kilometres in
second runway built reportedly to serve as alternative
the sky, immediately followed a rain of hot ash and
landing site for the space shuttle Columbia. All coming
pumice stones. It was 8:51 in the morning. Panic – people froze in their track, eyes in the sky
to nought. Before stunned eyes passed the
and mouth agape, shocked
very end of the city’s economic
and awed by nature’s might.
being:
truck,
Then pandemonium – the rush
and
for home, hither and thither
their dependents started their
like headless chickens, amid
exodus from Clark – jamming
the cacophony of frightened
the North Luzon Expressway in
shrieks,
a three-mile long convoy – to
screeching tires and blaring
Subic where US warships and
horns.
By
American
car,
bus,
servicemen
troop transports awaited them for their journey home.
nervous
prayers,
With the acrid smell of sulfur wafting in the ash-
Their departure from Clark was for the Americans
laden air, masks – surgical and industrial – ran out in
less a stoic acceptance of the impending repudiation by
the city’s drug and hardware stores. The surplus bio-
the Philippine Senate of the bases treaty— to ultimately
chemical masks from Desert Storm which found their
come in September— than a hurried, harried flight
way in the PX stalls of Dau and Nepo Mart had been
from certain catastrophe.
snagged, wholesale, by some very enterprising profiteer
June 11. “16,000 evacuated from Clark” bannered the Stars and Stripes, with the sub-head: “Major eruption feared from Mount Pinatubo volcano.” The rumblings of the hitherto hardly known volcano starting to get frequenter and stronger by the hour. June 12. Philippine Independence Day. For the first
earlier. Braving the cloud of ash, President Cory Aquino flew by helicopter to Clark to see the situation first hand, and dropped by the Angeles City High School where the eruption’s very first evacuees of 2,000, mostly Aeta tribesmen, have taken refuge.
time in 90 years, Angeles City was thoroughly free of a
“This could only be the beginning.” So warned Dr.
foreign occupation force. The meaning of the day though
Raymundo S. Punongbayan, director of the Philippine
was utterly lost to Mayor Antonio Abad Santos whose
Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), of
speech before the city hall alternated between carping
the June 12 eruptions.
I
T WAS THE WORST OF TIMES.
June 13. Phivolcs recorded more eruptions, the volcano gushing greater clouds of ash and gases 25 kilometers in the sky. “Phenomenal eruptions,” Punongbayan called them, and declared: “This is already the Big Bang. I can’t see any other eruption that will exceed this.” June 14. Dark clouds blanketed the city, ominously dimming the garish, neon lights of Balibago. June 15. A much Bigger Bang that proved Punongbayan’s declaration deadly wrong.
The Great Eruption that turned
and commercial area of San Nicolas
bright day— starting at 8:15 in the
and the business district, indeed the
morning— to darkest night. The roll
very heart of the city, Sto. Rosario
of thunder, the flash of lightning,
where city hall, the “big church,” the
the rain of ash and stones, and the
enclaves of the rich, as well as the
tremors of the ground foreboding
city’s, and Central Luzon’s, biggest
the very end of days.
private school, Holy Angel College
The city’s secondary economic lifeline— next only to
were all sited, all inundated by steaming mud.
Clark Air Base— furniture and handicrafts manufacturing
There, a long-established tale belied: As the elevation
totally collapsed, literally, from the weight of ashfall:
of Angeles City is levelled with the very spire of the
Factories— roofs, beams, posts and walls— crashing down
Metropolitan Cathedral in San Fernando, any flooding in
on equipment, supplies and finished products.
the city would mean the capital town under at least 30 feet
Collapsed too, as many houses in the city, was the roof of the Philippine Rabbit Bus terminal downtown, killing two waiting passengers and injuring scores of others. Later
of water. On Doomsday itself, no flooding was recorded in San Fernando.
in the day, the city’s very icon of the finest Chinese cuisine—
With supplications to the Almighty drowned by the
Shanghai De Luxe Restaurant— burned to the ground after
rumble of the volcano, with the onslaught of mudflows and
its roof collapsed on the liquefied petroleum gas tanks in
the rain of ash unabating, it was hegira for the Angelenos.
its kitchen.
All the roads leading south of the city were filled with
By 2 in the afternoon, steaming mudflows— soon
dazed and dazzled refugees, on foot, in cars, on buses, on
to enter the lexicon as the terrifying lahar— sprang from
trucks: seeking relative safety in the homes of relatives and
the foot of Pinatubo rampaged through the Abacan River
friends, finding temporary shelters in evacuation centers,
destroying in succession Friendship Bridge that led to Clark,
the first of which was Amoranto Stadium in Quezon City,
Hensonville Spillway, Abacan Bridge where MacArthur
provided for by Mayor Brigido Simon Jr, a Kapampangan
Highway traversed and Pandan Bridge that led to Magalang.
himself, who also brought buses to the very ramp of the
Scouring the riverbank and gobbling up houses and
Angeles exit of the North Luzon Expressway to ferry more
buildings, including the remnants of the collapsed Angeles
evacuees.
City General Hospital.
Buried in ashes, reduced to a virtual ghost town, Angeles
It was the city’s first taste of the devastating power of
City and its twin basetown, Olongapo which also bore the
lahar— a horrific byword sending people to higher ground
initial brunt of the eruptions, made easy picking for the
at the slightest drop of rain.
moralists’ sermon of the wrath of God heaped upon Sodom
West of the city, the lahar-swollen Mancatian River swallowed its eponymous bridge cutting off Angeles from Porac town. Mudflows overtopped the Sapang Balen Creek and spread steadily across the city proper. The public market
and Gomorrah. The host cities to the US military bases long known as deeply mired in decadence and debauchery. But erased from the face of the earth like the biblical sin cities, Angeles City refused to be.
PICTURE PERFECT
Verdant, lush vegetation at its slope, clouds of white against blue sky at its peak, Mount Pinatubo lies in majesty serene.
ď ?ď ? ASTIR
Wisps of white steam rises from vents of the volcano, sending signals of its awakening from over 600 years of dormancy.
BELCHING
Pillar of ash
rises from crater at the initial stages of the eruption.
BIG BANG
Mushroom cloud makes Clark like Hiroshima after the atomic bomb was dropped in 1945.
PHENOMENON
No white snow but a
wasteland of gray in the winter of our despair.
NO FIRE, NO BRIMSTONE
But,
ash and pumice stone rain down on “Sin City.”
INTERRED SOVEREIGNTY
Symbol of Philippine jurisdiction over the Clark Air Base lies half-buried
in sand and ash.
SHOCKED
Steaming
scalding mudflows— soon to be known as
lahar— horrify residents along the Abacan
River.
FRIENDSHIP BRIDGE
First, scoured...
FRIENDSHIP BRIDGE
...then cut by rampaging lahar.
ď ?ď ? AWED
Roaring, roiling lahar makes a
terrifying spectacle. Atop
what remains of Abacan Bridge gives the best
view.
FIRST HAND
Ed Pamintuan takes CL police director C/Supt. Diony Ventura at the banks of Abacan River during a lahar flow.
Mayor
REMAINS OF THE DAY
Shells of houses are what’s left after yet another lahar rampage.
“Beyond the headlines
PUROK 3, BARANGAY SAPANGBATO
and statistics, the tragedy was real, was personal.”—J.A.F.PUNZALAN
SCOURED MEMORIES ‘‘Right after the bridge was the Methodist church. Four houses down the road, between Apung Julia’s and Apung Soling’s, was our ‘compound’ where my mother and her three other sisters made their homes. Thirteen of us cousins grew up there. You could still see the wall of our kitchen...”
WHERE TO? | BY BONG PUNSALAN
Hither and tither, the people go seeking safety from the eruptions.
ď ?ď ?
HEGIRA | BY BONG PUNSALAN
Fleeing the mountain for the safety of the city, Aeta tribesmen found themselves massing for yet another flight to a farther destination.
TEMPORARY RELIEF
No smiles lost for evacuees bonding
under nipa roof.
FACTS & FIGURES | BY BONG PUNSALAN
Ledgers tell life in the tent city.
BRAVE CORY | BY BONG PUNSALAN
Aeta leader
expresses his tribe’s
gratitude to President
Cory Aquino
who braved the first eruptions flying in a helicopter to see how they are doing at the first
evacuation center in the city.
IN RUINS | BY BONG PUNSALAN
Totally devastated is Central Luzon’s biggest high-end furniture manufacturer and exporter.
UNTHINKABLE
Where no floodwaters touch, mud now overflows. Miranda at the height of the eruptions.
Plaza
UNSPARED | BY BONG PUNSALAN
City hall, viewed from the churchyard caked in mud and debris.
MUCK AT HEAVEN’S GATE BY BONG PUNSALAN
Mud and silt deposited on Sto. Entierro St. right at the doorstep of the Holy Rosary Church.
A
GYU TAMU!
From out of the depths of desolation and despair, a cry— faint at first, then resonant all across the city. There rekindled some flicker of hope that the city can rise again, if only the people believed in themselves— that, yes: “We Can.” Summoning storied People Power, Acting Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan led thousands of his constituents to the Abacan River to confront the gravest threat to their very existence: Lahar. “Pala Ko, Buhay Mo,” the activity was named.
With picks and shovels, hoes and rakes— many
Lived with lahar, the Angelenos did. And even
with no implement other than their bare hands—
profited from it. Where lahar flowed— at the Abacan
the determined populace sandbagged the riverbanks,
River— enterprise flourished.
bamboo stakes serving as improvised sheet piles, in a
With the bridge totally destroyed, passenger vehicles
bid to check further scouring by lahar. It was futile as
loaded and off-loaded commuters at each end of the
pathetic an effort, with but ten minutes of lahar flow,
gap. For them to go down the river and cross to the
not the slightest trace of the day’s work remained.
other side.
The determination of the community though gained
Makeshift ladders of all makes— steel, aluminium,
international respect and recognition, their activity
bamboo, wood— and sizes were soon ranged against
winning for the coordinating agency, the Angeles City
both bluffs of the river to ease the ascent and descent of
“Kuliat” Jaycees, the Best Community Involvement
the commuters— for a fee, of course.
Project in the 47th World Jaycees Congress in Miami, Florida. The can-do spirit at the Abacan River thence inspiring and spawning clean-up projects all around the city.
To cross the river, commuters had a choice of the “Pajero,” an improvised sedan chair, and the “Patrol,” the carabao-drawn farmer’s cart locally known as gareta. Again, for a fee.
Manufacturers joined their craftsmen and artisans in
The pumice stones belched from the volcano’s
rebuilding their factories to revive productivity. Among
bowels became a principal source of livelihood, a
the first was Cruz Wood Industries which resumed its
backyard industry. Crushed to golf-ball size, the pumice
manufacture and export of high-end furniture within
was used in stone-washing denims. Handicrafts,
45 days after the eruptions.
ornaments, even art objects were fashioned out of
At Fields Avenue, bar girls and bar owners themselves
pumice rock, among the more familiar were Japanese
hosed the mud from their dance floors, sprayed the ash
stone lanterns, ashtrays, religious images— the head of
off their neon billboards, and opened up even to zero
the crucified Christ, angels and cherubs— and miniature
customers if only to perk up the place. US veterans that
jeepneys.
opted to stay helped in the famous avenue’s clean-up. The abandoned Clark golf course was literally dug
Needless to say, sand quarrying became a principal source of income in the city.
up from several meters of sand and ash by Angeles
With the sense of normalcy returning to the city,
City golfers in a team-up with the PAF’s Clark Air Base
there arose the need to jumpstart the still lethargic
Command. And made it playable in due time, the
local economy. Thus newly-elected Mayor Edgardo
constant threat of ashfall providing additional degree
Pamintuan and his confidant, the activist Alexander
of difficulty to their drives, pitches and putts.
Cauguiran, brainstormed Tigtigan, Terakan King Dalan.
So it is clichéd that familiarity breeds contempt.
Grounded on the defining character of Angeles as
So it was with lahar, the dread and horror it initially
an entertainment city, the Mardi Gras-like festivity— of
brought lost with the advent of heavy rains: Its scalding
street music and dancing, of food and drinks— ably
heat fizzled, its viscosity dissolved with the abundance
delivered to the nation and the world: “Happy Days Are
of water.
Here Again.”
SERVE THE PEOPLE
President Cory Aquino administers oath of office to Vice Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan with wife Herminia and father Bert as witnesses.
THROUGH PEOPLE POWER
Thousands heed the summons of Acting Mayor Ed Pamintuan to come down the Abacan River with shovels, picks, hoes and other implements— many with but their bare hands— to sandbag the banks against lahar scouring. Though futile, with a single lahar burst obliterating the day’s work, Pala Ko, Buhay Mo, was hailed as Best Community Involvement Project in the 47th World Jaycees Congress in Miami, Florida.
QUARRY SITE
Sackfuls of sand cleared off Fields Avenue make enough material for building construction.
IN ADVERSITY
ď ?ď ?
Corresponding opportunity in
carabaodrawn carts transporting commuters
across the shallows of the Abacan River for a fee, and in the
toll foot bridges.
RUSH HOUR | BY PETER C. ALAGOS
Like ants up and down a hill, commuters crowd the ladders at work’s end. To the delight of toll collectors.
ď ?ď ?
IN STYLE
Whether on an improvised sedan or piggy-back riding, no wet feet for these river crossers.
RIVER CROSSING
No standstill but much slowed down passage. Vehicles wait for their turn at the river crossing in Hensonville.
‘LONDON BRIDGE’ | BY DENG PANGILINAN
At the city’s
west end, a contraption of steel railings and wooden planks mounted on a truck serves as the only means of passage to Porac town.
HAVE MERCY
Citizens’ appeal gets heard with President
Ramos approving the construction of the
megadike system to contain lahar flows, with strong lobbying from Sen. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Mayor Ed Pamintuan, and by then former Gov. Bren Guiao.
city
STRONG STAND | BY PETER C. ALAGOS
Mayor Ed Pamintuan defends alignment of the megadike, delineated on the ground by a bulldozer.
DIGGING FOR OUR SURVIVAL | BY PETER C. ALAGOS
January 27, 1996. President
Ramos breaks Bacolor ground for the megadike. Officials on hand: Mabalacat Mayor Boking Morales, Rep. Zeny Ducut, Gov. Lito Lapid, Sen. Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo, DPWH Sec. Gregorio Vigilar, San Fernando Mayor Rey Aquino, and Magalang Mayor Joey Lacson.
ON THIS SITE BY BONG PUNSALAN
Stockpile of steel and sand.
Digging and drilling. Construction of the modern Abacan Bridge begins.
ď ?ď ? BACK IN BUSINESS
Former President
Aquino graces opening of first postPinatubo sale-exhibit of Angeles City furniture and handicraft manufacturers at newly constructed showroom
of Cruz Wood Industries. Attendees include the Cruz matriarch Juana, city first lady Herminia Pamintuan, Pert Cruz, Center for International Trade, Exhibits and Marketing head Ely Pinto Mansor, Vice Gov. Cielo Macapagal-Salgado with Rev. Fr. Rudy de Guzman officiating the blessing.
CREATIVITY AND CRAFTSMANSHIP | BY BONG PUNSALAN
Artisans craft a variety of products from volcanic debris, establishing new means of livelihood for the
stricken communities.
TTKD IS BORN | BY PETER C. ALAGOS
To jumpstart the local economy and restore the
confidence of the people in themselves, Mayor Ed Pamintuan rolls out Tigtigan,
Terakan king Dalan.
YES, WE CAN!
Angeleños came. Angeleños saw. Angeleños believed. The clarion call that saved the city gets institutionalized.
AS THE PHOENIX birthed itself from its own ashes, to rise, to soar to greater heights of glory, so did Angeles City. Clark Air Base reborn as a freeport zone. Its airport well on its way to full transformation as the country’s premier international gateway. Manufacturing abounding. Foreign investments rising. The Koreans keep on coming. Fields Avenue upgrading. The service industry— hotels, restaurants, entertainment— rebounding. New ones, like business process outsourcing, aborning. Shopping malls sprouting. Thousands of jobs opening. Greater opportunity spelling prosperity. A promised land of plenty. More than a happy ending to the Pinatubo story, this is yet a new beginning for Angeles City.
A
HAPPY BEGINNING.
CLARK FREEPORT ZONE
An airbase transformed. A Freeport born.
BERTHAPHIL, INC. | BY PETER C. ALAGOS
Biggest business park developer.
HOMEGROWN LOCATOR | BY PETER C. ALAGOS
Premier communications technology firm.
CALL CENTER | BY PETER C. ALAGOS
One BPO among many.
ENJOYING MIMOSA
A round of golf, a room at the inn.
FONTANA LEISURE PARK| BY PETER C. ALAGOS
World class... plus, plus, plus.
HOTEL VIDA, CASINO WIDUS BY PETER C. ALAGOS
Friendly hotel, winning casino.
HOTEL STOTSENBERG BY PETER C. ALAGOS
Keeping the old name of Clark alive.
THE EXPO
From tourist spot to an Australian school site.
HOT AIR BALLOON BY RIC GONZALES
Flights of fancy every February.
CLARK AIRPORT | BY PETER C. ALAGOS
From warplanes’ base, to premier international gateway.
THE BEST LANDS THE BIGGEST | BY RIC GONZALES
DMIA easily accommodates the A-380, the world’s largest commercial airliner.
READY FOR THE LONG HAUL | BY JOJO DUE
New bridges, more airlines to serve.
WAVE OF THE FUTURE | BY BORJ MENESES
Presidential smile raises approval rating for the DMIA, and CIAC’s Chichos Luciano can never be happier.
ZOOM
BY PETER C. ALAGOS
SCTEx cuts distance between two former US military bases turned into business hubs.
PINATUBO DREAMING BY RIC GONZALES
Puning’s hot springs.
ROYAL GARDEN GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB BY PETER C. ALAGOS
Drive, pitch and putt by some Grecian ruins.
LEWIS GRAND HOTEL | BY PAOLO FELICIANO
Neo-classic.
GRANDVIEW TOWER| BY RIC GONZALES
New in the block.
FIELDS AVENUE| BY PETER C. ALAGOS
Carousing the night.
P-NOY WAS HERE| BY BORJ MENESES
The International Bistro and Casino.
SM CITY CLARK| BY PETER C. ALAGOS
Got it all.
MARQUEE MALL| BY RIC GONZALES
And then some more
ENOUGH CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION| PETER C. ALAGOS
The night sky sparkling, the crowd below a-dancing.
PEOPLE’S PARTY |BY ARNEL DE JESUS
Rockin’ the road, again. Tigtigan Terakan... returns after threeyear hiatus.
THE BALIBAGO STRIP| BY RIC GONZALES
Back to life, in bright lights.
ABACAN BRIDGE
BY PETER C. ALAGOS
All new and improved.
FIRST LOOK | BY PETER C. ALAGOS
Still, for the old and familiar shall ever be some pining.
SECOND LOOK BY PETER C. ALAGOS
From the church belfry, the constancy of the old city emerging.
KEEPING FAITH | BY PAOLO FELICIANO
And whatever happiness or sorrow life may bring, to its roots Angeles shall ever be returning, and rejoicing.
CREATIVE TEAM
WRITER-EDITOR BONG Z. LACSON is chair of the Society of Pampanga Columnists and editorial consultant of Punto! Central Luzon. This is his seventh book and the second on the Pinatubo tragedy.
PHOTO EDITOR PETER C. ALAGOS, a byword in news and photojournalism, is also editor of Central Luzon Business Week, the first weekly paper purely devoted to business in the region, and Pampanga PEP, a tourism-oriented monthly magazine.
DESIGN DIRECTOR J. ABELARDO F. PUNZALAN, is a multi-talented graphics artist, writer, political analyst and marketing man at the Clark International Airport Corporation— not necessarily in that order. He is also creative director of Pampanga PEP.
JACKET ART BY NIKKI REYES
SPECIAL THANKS TO: Ms. Herminia Pamintuan Mr. Ronaldo Tiotuico Mr. Alexander Cauguiran Angeles City Government Angeles City Kuliat Jaycees, Inc. Clark Development Corporation Clark International Airport Corporation Clark Museum Department of Tourism-Region III Mexico Printing Company, Inc. Taga Angeles Ku The Angeles Sun Social Action Center of Pampanga
From out of the depths of desolation and despair, a cry— faint at first, then resonant all across the city... There rekindled some flicker of hope that the city can rise again, if only the people believed in themselves— that, “Yes, We Can.” As the phoenix birthed itself from its own ashes, to rise, to soar to greater heights of glory, so did Angeles City. More than a happy ending to the Pinatubo story, this is yet a new beginning. AGYU TAMU!